Revealed Communications Depict Epstein and Larry Summers as Trusted Friends
Multiple messages between convicted offender Jeffrey Epstein and ex- US finance chief Larry Summers have emerged this week, showing the pair acted as close contacts.
The messages, spanning 2013 to early 2019, show the two men discussing intimate – and at times improper – views on politics and personal connections.
I am attempting to determine why [the] American elite believe if u take the life of your baby by beating and abandonment it must be unimportant to your acceptance to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} determine why [the] American elite think if u kill your baby by beating and neglect it must be irrelevant to your entry to Harvard,”} Summers stated to Epstein in a 2017 communication. However hit on a few women 10 years ago and can’t work at a network or think tank. DO NOT SHARE THIS IDEA.”
At that time, Harvard University was wrestling with an acceptance discussion after a formerly incarcerated woman’s acceptance to a PhD program. Summers, a ex- president of the university who resigned amid a scandal after making sexist comments about female academics, continued in the message to Epstein: I pointed out that half of the IQ in [the] world was held by women without stating they are more than 51 percent of society.”
Summers was once a prominent figure in liberal circles – a one-time treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the main architects of Barack Obama’s approach to the economic downturn, and a committed presence in the liberal commentariat. But concerns have remained about his association with Epstein, a former associate of Donald Trump. Epstein was alleged to have run a wide-ranging exploitation operation before his demise in jail in 2019 in New York City.
Following publication of a previous tranche of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 article, a agent for Summers stated that he “deeply regrets being in contact with Epstein after his guilty verdict”.
Democratic Party lawmakers released emails from the Epstein estate this week that indicate Epstein believed Trump was aware of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In reply, Republican lawmakers released a larger batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
The released materials show that Summers maintained congenial contact with the adjudicated child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the last email exchange taking place only months before Epstein’s apprehension.
Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday that he would be asking the Department of Justice and the FBI to look into Epstein’s “involvement and connection” with Summers, among other prominent Democratic figures and corporate executives.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein talk about politics – particularly Summers’s disdain for Trump – as well as the aspects of philanthropic social networking – and women. Summers, 70, disclosed to Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his overtures toward an unidentified woman, and being rejected.
“shes smart. making you pay for past errors,” Epstein wrote in an exchange on 16 March. “disregard the 'daddy' comment, I'm going out with the motorcycle guy, you handled it well.. irritation indicates concern., no complaining demonstrated strength.”
Summers affirmed his regret in a recent statement. “I harbor significant regrets in my lifetime,” he commented. “As I have said before, my association with Jeffrey Epstein was a major error of judgement.”
Summers was president of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006. Epstein donated more than $9m to Harvard and its associated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was named a visiting fellow to perform research. The university later determined Epstein “did not have the academic qualifications visiting fellows typically possess and his application outlined a course of study Epstein was ill-equipped to pursue”.
Harvard only ceased accepting Epstein’s donations after he confessed to child sex offenses in 2008.
At that point Obama’s career was advancing. Summers would ultimately win appointment as director of the White House economic advisory body from January 2009 until November 2010.
After Summers departed the White House, he began soliciting Epstein for philanthropic advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor pursuing a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made philanthropic donations to projects associated with Summers’s wife, and the two men met a multiple times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After reporting about Epstein’s donations surfaced, New’s charity made a donation “above and beyond” of that received to anti-sex-trafficking organizations.